Steve Ripley has kicked around a bit: ringleader of The Tractors, band member for J.J. Cale and Leon Russell, lead guitarist on Dylan’s Shot Full Of Love, honky-tonking musician in his teen years. Bits and pieces of this background bob up in Ripley’s solo debut: bluesy rockers, soulful gospel with the Jordanaires singing backup, a banjo-plinking cover of “No Depression (In Heaven)”. Heck, Ripley even injects a couple of verses (original melody intact) from Dylan’s 1964 “I Don’t Believe You” into the middle of his own new tune “Down, Down”, proving once again that a broken heart is a timeless event and that musical genres and trends are really arbitrary categories.
The album could have wound up directionless. Instead, it brims with inclusiveness, alleycatting around one minute and folding its hands in prayer the next, sorrowing over JFK and the Brooklyn Dodgers and all the other stuff we’ve lost on one track but then, a couple songs later, remembering the eternal reward that awaits the righteous. Ripley’s gruff voice, effortless lead guitar and taut lyrics underpin the whole affair.